Indian Crypto Exchange CoinDCX Raises $135 Million, Valuation Reaches $2.15 Billion

Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX announced on Tuesday a $135 million Series D funding round. The company’s valuation in the new round has nearly doubled to $2.15 billion from $1.1 billion in August 2021. 

Co-founder and CEO of the firm Sumit Gupta announced the news on Twitter, saying he was “excited to share that CoinDCX has raised over USD 135 million in our latest Series D funding round.”

The company said it plans to invest the money in expanding its product offering, increasing its talent base, and focusing on compliance issues. CoinDCX currently employs about 400 people, which it wants to increase to 1,000 by the end of the year.

Led by Steadview and Pantera, which brought nearly half of the funds, the new round had major participation from DraperDragon, Kingsway, Republic, and Kindred Ventures. Existing investors B Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Polychaincap, and Cadenza also increased their allocations in CoinDCX.  

“With a shared vision of a digital-first economy, we see this round as a strong endorsement of the amazing work that CoinDCX has done for the ecosystem over the years and our plans for the future,” said Sumit Gupta.

Most Valued India Crypto Firm

With this round, CoinDCX became the highest valued crypto company in India, the exchange said in a blog on its site. 

In August last year, when CoinDCX raised $90 million in Series C funding led by B Capital, it was valued at $1.1 billion, making it the first unicorn in the Indian crypto space. With over 10 million users, CoinDCX provides buying, margin trading, and staking of digital assets.

In November 2021, Neeraj Khandelwal, co-founder and CTO, revealed that the startup has plans to go public as soon as possible. CoinDCX also hogged media headlines around the same time for listing meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB) on its platform. This came in the aftermath of Shiba Inu briefly topping the charts as one of the most traded coins and reaching a new all-time high.  

Focus on Regulatory Compliance 

In a series of tweets following the announcement of the latest funding, Gupta tried to address the current impasse that the Indian cryptocurrency market is witnessing by saying:

“We are on a mission to build a greater understanding and trust between regulators, industry, and our users. This latest round of funding will help us accelerate the growth of Crypto adoption in India and further the march of Web3.0.”

The funding for CoinDCX has come at a time when Indian crypto exchanges are witnessing a sharp fall in transaction volume due to the denial of instant electronic retail payments through UPI.